Pharmaceutical neuroscience
PET imaging of delta opioid receptors in living brain.
The Pharmaceutical Neuroscience theme has members from across all disciplines of the department. Members of the core were instrumental in setting up and coordinating the activity of the university wide Neuroscience Network at University of Bath (NNUB).
Members of the theme currently utilise a wide variety of pharmacological techniques including extensive use of electrophysiological recording (extra and intracellular, whole-cell patch-clamp) in in vitro brain slice preparations. Molecular approaches, cellular imaging, and a range of behavioural techniques complement the electrophysiology.
Strong links with the Drug Discovery, Design and Development theme has led to collaborative projects delivering new ligands targeted at the CNS, while collaborative projects with colleagues in Drug Delivery & Biopharmaceutical Technology has allowed new insight into how these drugs might be delivered in the clinic, while links to Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacy Practice provide a clinical perspective to the work.
Particular areas of interest include how changes in network activity can lead to abnormal synchronization and epilepsy, and how anticonvulsant drugs can normalize deranged synchronization, understanding the molecular mechanisms that are involved in depression and anxiety and studying the neuronal changes caused by drugs of abuse and how they relate to drug tolerance and addiction.
Developing a pharmacophore for opioid, including NOP, activity.
Drug abuse research figures prominently in various other projects, including the development of new treatment agents for opioid and cocaine abuse and the development of evidence-based interventions for people with drug addiction. The area of drug abuse research is notable for the cross-departmental collaborations with input from pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics and pharmacy practice.
Examples of research activity include Jones’ focus on synaptic communication and processing in cortical nerve networks. In particular, the way in which changes in network activity can lead to abnormal synchronization and epilepsy, and how anticonvulsant drugs can normalize deranged synchronization, are being examined.
Latest research highlights
One recent highlight is the first demonstration that a synaptic transmitter receptor (the NMDA receptor, thought to be intimately involved network plasticity) undergoes regulated trafficking in synaptic nerve terminals (Yang et al 2008). A recent award from NC3Rs (£400K) will fund development of a chronic model of epilepsy in long-term organotypic brain slice cultures. The primary objective of Husband’s group is to develop new treatments for drug abuse, including therapeutics to help prevent relapse, but new pharmacological tools are also developed, for example, ligands for positron emission tomography (PET) studies of living brain. In collaboration with colleagues within the department and at the University of Michigan and Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies we have recently discovered the first universal opioid receptor ligand, binding with high affinity to mu, kappa, delta and NOP receptors and developed the first small molecule inhibitors of Regulator of G Protein Signalling proteins with cellular activity (funded by US NIH).
Members
- Dr Roland Jones (Lead)
- Dr Chris Bailey – Neuropharmacology; drug abuse; drug tolerance, G-protein-coupled receptors; electrophysiology; behavioural pharmacology
- Dr Sarah Bailey – Neuropharmacology; depression; anxiety; behavioural pharmacology; molecular signalling
- Dr Stephen Husbands - Medicinal chemistry; CNS; opioids; drug abuse; analgesia; depression; anxiety
- Dr Paul Mitchell
